The Godfather of Shepparton rowing

And yet families still walk around the pristine lake, joggers puff as they trot past, a dog’s playful barks ring out over the water and children attempt to stay upright on a paddle board.

Little do these people know that the man they should thank for this beautiful slice of nature is busy bustling around in the rowing sheds only 50m away.

That man is David Schier.

Being the former chief executive of Rowing Australia is only one of Schier’s impressive list of accomplishments as he also did service for the Royal Australian Air Force, runs a legal firm in Shepparton and was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for his services to rowing.

More recently, Schier won two races at the historical Rutherglen Regatta on January 13 and 14.

“It always attracts big entries from all over the state,” Schier said.

“In the Masters division there were 21 single sculls, which is a large entry for that regatta.

“I was able to have two very good rows on both days and strong wins.”

Schier finds rowing’s culture draws him in as an athlete and a coach; he says that respect between competitors is an essential part of the fabric of the sport.

“Rowing is one of the fairest sports,” he said.

“If you win, you win on your merits. And even at this regatta when I won my medals, the other competitors did the three cheers like they did when I first started rowing back in 1974.

“That long-standing tradition of respect for the winner and never protesting or calling into question the nature of the win is very much a part of the culture of rowing.”

Before Schier took up rowing at the age of 24, he was a proud and passionate middle-distance runner until an untimely back injury meant he could either have surgery or find an activity that would strengthen his back.

Enter the sport of rowing.

Schier soon became enthralled in the sport and after graduating from university he would eventually become the Lake Barrington development committee chair in the central-northern area of Tasmania.

At Lake Barrington, Schier would achieve national notoriety as he helped bring the 1990 World Rowing Championships to Australia for the first and only time.

Refurbishing and developing parks to help boost passive water recreation ― non-motorised activities ― is an evident passion for Schier, and it was the reason for his move to the Goulburn Valley as he was offered the job of project manager for the Nagambie Lakes Regatta Centre.

This was the second of his three lake refurbishments and it gave him a learned experience of the Goulburn Valley area before he started his plan to turn Victoria Park Lake into the picturesque landscape it is today.

“In 2006, when we started on the program, it (Victoria Park Lake) was a glorified swamp,” he said.

“If you looked out (onto the lake) you couldn’t see the water; it was just overgrown with reeds and weeds.

“You just couldn’t do anything on it, so I established a lobbying group (to restore the lake) ... and eventually that was successful after two-and-a-half years.

“It’s just a huge success because on any given day in the summertime if you stand in one position, you will see at the lake 80 people around it. It attracts all sorts of people, which it didn’t in 2006.”

Looking out from the rowing sheds at Victoria Park Lake, it is evident that the space is a natural and recreational hub in Shepparton.

The park, playground, cycle trails, skate park and swimming centre surrounding the lake provide ample options for families hoping to escape technological vices.

Meanwhile, the Sailability, triathlon, canoe and rowing clubs provide opportunities for passive recreation.

Shepparton Rowing Club, like Victoria Park Lake, has Schier to thank for its existence.

While the club was created in 1884, it collapsed in the ’60s.

And except for a brief moment of revitalisation in the ’90s, it lay dormant until Schier founded the new club across 2011-12, before becoming head coach and president for nearly a decade.

When asked about his experience with the club, Schier’s face lit up as he spoke in-depth and excitedly about the various performances of championship-winning male and female crews he had coached.

As we walked around the rowing shed Schier would point to different team photos scattered across walls and tables and explain the nature of each rower and what they are doing with their life now.

One of the issues with running a rowing club in a regional town is that when junior rowers finish high school and enrol at a university in Melbourne, they are often poached by metropolitan clubs.

This issue, mixed with a challenging 24-month period for the club, has Schier admitting the club is in a tough situation.

“They lost their head coach two years ago and they have been affected by COVID-19 and then the floods in 2022,” he said.

“The lake was closed for three months; we couldn’t get on it.

“Young people that were interested in rowing drifted off and did other things. They have had some physical impacts from those events which has been a huge setback for the club.”

But Schier believes the club can turn its fortunes around quickly, as he said that from the start of the new SRC ― which still used the old club’s colours of maroon and gold ― there was an immediate success, which was impressive for a newly formed regional club.

“In the space of two years, we won our first state championship, which was just remarkable,” he said.

“Just the fact we could offer a competitive water sport with a state-wide competition appealed to a lot of people. It’s not Shepparton verse Congupna or Kyabram or so forth; you are competing against the best in the state every time you go to a regatta.

“The year I finished, our club won six medals at the titles. For a country club that is a really good outcome. I went out on a high and stood down.”

Geoff Withers became club’s president after Schier stepped down in 2018.

When asked what Schier meant to the club, Withers was quick to mention how “instrumental” Schier was in rejuvenating the sport of rowing in Shepparton.

“He got rowing going again in Shepparton,” Withers said.

“It certainly wouldn’t have happened without his valuable input.

“There’s no question about that. He took that (founding the club) on with gusto and did a tremendous amount of work to get everything up and running.

“He likes to see things through. He’s very determined.”

Now that Shepparton is breaking clear of the challenges that have besieged the rowing club in the past 24 months, Schier hopes the club can get back to where it once was.

“It would be good to see the club get some numbers back,” Schier said.

“I can count on my fingers and have some left of the amount of people that have tried rowing and don’t like it.”